Design: A secondary data derived from The Gambia Demographic and Health Survey 2013 (DHS) was analyzed.
Methods: A secondary data derived from The Gambia Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) 2013 was used to analyze the data. A total sample of 1,709 of whom, 1410 were males aged 15 – 24 years. Stratified sampling technique was used in the original survey, 281 enumeration areas (EAs) and 25 households in every EAs. Males and females aged 15 to 24, who had MSPs or not, and only 2013 Gambia DHS data were included in this study. Permission granted by the Service Provision Assessment (SPA) data from the DHS Program. The Chi-square test and logistic regression were performed to analysis the data and SAS version 9.4 was used for analysis.
Results: Having MSPs was significant among females (17.39%), youth with secondary or high educational level (14.26%), who were from the richest households (15.11%), lived in urban areas (13.14%), Kanifing region (19.64%), being a Jola/Karoninka tribe (33.65%) and from the Christian religion (60.0%). The multivariate logistic regression shows that the prevalence of MSP was most likely high among youth who had ever been tested for HIV (AOR =2.56). Compared to females, males were 58% less likely to report MSP (AOR =0.42) and youth with no education were 72% less likely to report MSP. Overall, those whose religion were Islam (AOR =0.12) were 88% less likely to have MSP while 89% of youth that do not use condom during last sex (AOR =0.11) were less likely to have MSPs.
Conclusion: Having MSPs was predicted to increase the risk of STIs among youth. The need to strengthen continuing health education programs on predictors of MSPs is paramount.